Chapter 42

Silver shot out from under us and everything went black and white. With another flash I found my feet in sand once more. The sun was out and the sand was gleaming underneath us. For a minute it was just Jazz, Tex and I. Another flash came to our right Phoenix, Justin, and Eileen appeared next to us. My eyes left them standing there and moved on to where I actually was. It was a typical island, palm trees fenced off the island after the sandy beach. The island was full of many different colors greens, blues, and yellows. Flowers with very wild and vivid colors could be seen below the tree line. You couldn’t see the opposite side of the Island it was actually quite large. Vast mountains stood proudly in the center of the island and waterfalls could be seen falling from them. Birds sang their beautiful songs boastfully somewhere from deep within the Island. I looked down the line of the beach. A few large rocks could be seen looking out over the ocean. They were connected to the higher part of the Island. As I looked down the beach I caught a recognizable figure. Jo walked down the side of the beach with Ryder attached to her.

She was wearing a white thin sundress. You could see a blue bikini underneath. Her usually beautifully done hair was wet and pulled to a side pony tail. She had no makeup on and yet looked stunning. Her skin was tanner than the last time I saw her. She smiled and was beaming. Ryder had on some blue swim trunks and an open button up shirt. Water was trickling off his body and into the golden sand underneath him. He had dark aviator glasses that sat on his long nose. Phoenix walked up and hugged him. Justin stood staring at me with big apologetic eyes. I knew that inside of him he felt horrible and I liked that.

                Jo walked up to me and wrapped her gleaming arms around me, “How was your trip?” She asked into my ear.  

“It was alright.” I answered her as kind as I could.

                A throbbing pain was stuck in my heart and being on this island wasn’t helping. As I stood on the beach I thought of Rylan running up and down them to keep his body in shape. I also saw him as a little kid playing on the beach with his brother and sister.

                The sun was setting behind the ocean and I stood impatiently waiting to see what was going to happen. Ryder answered my question shortly, “We have rooms for everyone.” We followed Ryder and Jo along the beach. Tex walked silently next to me. When I caught him looking at me I wrapped my arms around his shoulders and pulled him in close.

                My mouth went to his ear, “Thank you.” I whispered so the rest of the family couldn’t hear.

                Tex’s smile brightened and he held his head up a little higher knowing that he was actually helping me out. We walked along the beach until we rounded a corner. In front of us looked like a high end hotel and resort. A large white building sat looking out towards the sunset. It was about three stories tall and sat perfectly nested in between different kinds of palm trees. Around it were different little bungalows that spread along the beach. The bungalows contained a bed in white and blue sheets. I saw now where Rylan got the color scheme for our house. Ryder led us to the front of the hotel and we stepped in through two glass doors. The color scheme from the bungalows outside was also inside. Everything was white and looked like a modern day hotel. I turned to Tex, “What is this for?”

“A lot of the heroes that graduate from the school like to come back with their families and visit. Much like what we’re doing now.”

                I nodded and walked up to the front desk. I looked up to the high ceilings and almost fell over. On the top of the ceiling was a mural painting of something, it was so high up that I couldn’t see exactly what it was. “It’s Keolamauloa Khtulu. He was the man who found the island and protected it with the powers.”

                “Rylan’s his direct heir.” I said proudly.

                Tex’s gaze was up like mine, “That’s awesome.”

                Someone tapped my shoulder and both Tex and I looked down. Ryder stood in front of me, “I got you your own room; It’s on the bottom floor.” He handed me a sliding key and stepped to the others to give them their keys. As I walked past the man at the front desk he stared at me like he was seeing his reincarnated grandma. He stood stiff backed with one hand on his chest. I nodded and lifted my hand. He bent slightly at the waist in a bow�"weird. The rest of the group split off and I walked solo to my room. The white door was one of the only doors down the hall. The card slid through the reader nicely and the green light flashed. My hand pushed down on the door knob and I walked into the room.

The room was huge. It had to be one of their largest suites. The whole wall when you walked in was made of large panes of glass; one of the panes was a door leading out onto the beach. Curtains hung blocking out the night cold. A large king size bed sat in the middle of the room. The comforter was a maroon color it matched well with the dark wood holding the mattress. On the bed were my bags, Ryder must’ve gotten them when he left. I threw the key onto a table that was sitting against the wall. Another door was on the other side of the bedroom. As I walked around the bed I got the familiar sent of rain. It wasn’t a usual scent that was often smelt, but I knew then the smell was from Rylan. Had this been his room or something? Quickly I opened the glass door and smelt the same aroma. The whole island smelt like this. I couldn’t believe I’d missed it when we warped. The scent gave me a soothing feeling in the pit of my stomach. I turned to my right and went to the other door. As I opened it a whole other room appeared. It was a living room setting, white couches, white curtains, and white chairs. This scene was all too familiar. I spun around in the center of the room to get everything in. A Large flat screen TV sat in the corner next to the wall that housed the huge bathroom with a jet propelled bathtub and large walk in shower. This room was very amazing.

I smelled to find a tangy odor. My cheeks flushed red as I realized what it was… me. The bathroom was warm and it got warmer as I filled up the tub full of hot water. As I slipped into the warm water someone knocked at the door. I sighed loudly and yelled, “Come in!”

                I don’t know how he actually got in without a key but he did. Justin knocked on the bathroom door. Again I told him to come in. As he walked in he covered his eyes, “Dude you’re naked.”

                I looked up at him, “do you honestly care?”

                A smile twitched at the corners of his mouth. I turned the jets on and started to relax. Justin sat on the side of the tub and looked down on me. “How are you?” He asked.

                “I’m fine, thanks.” My head tilted back and my eyes closed. My powers flicked on as I tried to relax my body and fix all that I needed to. 

                Justin’s long finger splashed around in my water. I opened one eye to see him watching me, “I’m sorry. You know, about Rylan.”

                A sigh released from between my lips, “I know.”

                His fingers came out of the warm bath, “I’m also so sorry about Phoenix and I. You had the right to know and I lied.”

                My eyes closed again and I sunk deeper into the water, “That’s true.”

                Justin leaned further down on the side of the tub. He rested his elbow on the white granite and sighed. “I just didn’t know how to tell you, and Rylan, well he is an intimidating fellow. He didn’t want me telling you because he said the time wasn’t right…” Justin continued on with a long heartfelt apology but my mind wandered.

It moved back to a time many years ago with Rylan and I, our relationship was very new. We both sat in the tub together. His stunningly marvelous hands ran up and down my thigh as I drank from a champagne glass filled with a protein fruit drink�"the things I did for him. His feet were lying on my stomach and I was rubbing them. His dark mysterious eyes wandered all over my face. He swallowed the last few sips of his drink and set the glass down on the side of the tub. My hand switched his feet and he started talking, “someday I’ll take you to meet my family.” A smile hinted at the corners of his crimson lips.

                “They won’t like me,” I responded carefully.

                A laugh separated his perfect teeth, “And why not?”

                “I took their son away.”

                His face hardened and became serious, “I left by my own free will. You didn’t take me away from anyone.” His face softened again and I relaxed, “Of course you’re utterly irresistible, so you’re right. They won’t like you.”

                I crammed my thumb into the center of his foot. He pulled it away for a few seconds and then returned it onto my chest. “Seriously, someday I’ll take you to my island and you’ll meet my whole family.”

My eyes got huge but then I returned it with a smile, “They don’t mind what I turned you into?”

                “You make me sound like some horrible person. I’m gay. It’s nothing to be ashamed about.” He paused again and kissed the top of my knee, “Actually I think I’m just a shilohsexual.”

                This time I laughed. “A what?”

                “A Shilohsexual. Before I found you I had women crawling all over me. I was crawling all over women too.” He became serious again, “I was even dead set on marrying this one girl who was at the University.”

                My eyes narrowed and I tried to catch his emotion. I couldn’t quite tell if it was regret or happiness. He continued, “Then one night as I slept I had the most amazing dream about you. I’d never actually met you before so I thought it was amazing to actually be having such a close bond with you in my dreams. They weren’t normal dreams they were real life scenarios.” His chin tilted up and he pondered silently for a moment. When he began a soothing smile came to his face. “I talked to my mom about the night after night reoccurring dreams. These were her exact words. ‘You go out and find this boy. Apparently he is someone very important. If he wasn’t, would this really be bothering you so much?’”

Rylan’s hand came down around my calf. “I’m glad I did find you.”

                A question was tugging at my mind, “Who was the girl?”

                “What girl?” He was honest, he really couldn’t remember.

                I helped him out a little, “The one you were going to marry.”

                A spark set off in his eye and he smirked. “If I told you that, I’d have to kill you.”  My eyes glared at him with as much hate as I could muster. It wasn’t a lot. It was hard to be mad at such a stunning creature. “Do you really want me to tell you?”

                I nodded slightly not enough to fully answer, “I do.”

                “Her name was Fiona. She was a student at the University. She was taking my Hero History course that I taught for a semester. She originated from Pittsburgh although she was of Khtulu descent. She was very beautiful.”

                “If something happened to me would you go back with her?”

                Rylan laughed trying to ease my awkward statement. He took his foot out of my hands and leaned forward. His face came within inches of my own, “Not a chance.” He leaned back again and shoved his foot in my face. “If something ever happened to you, I’d kill myself.” His eyes gleamed, “I’d follow you anywhere.”

“I would do the same.” I answered truthfully.

                “No.” He snapped, “You wouldn’t dare to do such a thing.”

                “I would.” I shoveled back.

                Again he leaned forward but this time his hand came to the side of my face. “You promised.”

                My hand pushed his away, “I hate that promise.”

                “I love you.” He whispered.

                I leaned forward now, “You aren’t going to get away with this so easily you know.”

                “Yes I am.” His lips pressed into mine softly, “I love you.”

                “I love you too.” I whispered.

                “What did you just say?” Justin’s deep voice woke me from my memories. Justin was sitting up with a very baffled look on his face. He repeated himself, “What did you just say?”

                My face sunk lower into the water so that it was covering my chin and all of my neck, “I asked if I could borrow some shorts tomorrow.” Justin’s newly silver eyes hammered down onto me and I knew he understood the first time, “I wasn’t actually saying it to you, I was talking to-“

                “Rylan?” Justin knew exactly. I nodded solemnly. I hated talking about him especially now. “You know, I know what it’s like to be in love. I know what I feel like when I even imagine something happening to Phoenix.”

                “It’s not the same at all, Justin.”

                “You’re right, but I’d talk about it.”

                I sat up again and I could’ve sworn that steam spewed out of my ears, “Justin, it’s never happened to you, not even once. I’ve dealt with losing someone multiple times, now. So don’t you sit here and tell me what you’d do, because you won’t ever have to. You have boy wonder on your side who can fix everything�"except him.” I slumped back into the water.

                “I see now. We aren’t ever going to be friends again are we?”

                I stuck my head out a little further to prove my point. With the sharpest knife words I could I hissed through my teeth, “Not a chance.”

                Pain exploded throughout Justin. I could tell in the way his eyes averted my gaze. He stood up and wiped his hands on his pants as I again slid lower into the water. “Well then, I guess I’m wasting my time here.”

                My head nodded creating waves around my chin in my warm blanket of water. “You know where the door is.”

His thick thighs walked past my face without dwindling. The bathroom door slammed behind my head and my body jumped. I heard the other door slam as he left the room all together. I let my feet slip out from under me and my head splashed underneath the water.